Can You Guess How Far Apart These Before And After Bikini Shots Were Taken?

How do you feel when you see a #ProgessPic on Instagram? Motivated or deflated?

Whatever the answer, it’s worth noting that progress pics, where a person posts a side by side photo documenting their body transformation, aren’t always entirely what they seem.

The latest gal to prove this point is fitness Instagrammer Jess AKA @PlankingForPizza. Posting two drastically different photos of her bod, she wanted to show that #ProgressPics can sometimes be a tad misleading.

? This is not a transformation photo ? This week I’ve decided to do the 30 second transformation photo. These pics were taken second apart this morning. On the left my posture is poor, I’m pushing my belly out as far as possible, I adjusted my bottoms to show my gross, unsightly and horrid love handles. These are often concealed by my high waisted pants and bottoms that do fit so much better now. As much as it pains me to showcase these, it also proves that my body isn’t perfect and that I still have work to do and fat to lose (I’m working so hard to get rid of my love handles and lower tummy fat. Yes it has dramatically reduced already but it still exists and I’m still insecure about it). On the right I’m standing straight and comfortably. I’m lightly flexing and I’ve adjusted my bottoms to hide my love handles. I’m thankful for bikini bottoms that now fit well and hide these but I’m also trying to show that they still exist quite a bit and that not everything we see meets the eye here on social media. You can show you best angles and hide your flaws but at the end of the day what we chose to showcase is a reflection of ourselves. My body isn’t perfect. I still have imperfections and flaws that I’m slowly learning to be comfortable with. I want to be real and honest and open. Yes I’ve accomplished a lot, but yes my body still has less than ideal days when it doesn’t look its best. Fitness and health is not a fix. It’s not a destination. It’s a lifestyle. If you force your progress you know who you are cheating?! You. You only cheat you. Yes I like to show my best most of the time but I’ve also realized by not showing my worst that it only harms myself. Being vulnerable and imperfect is hard but lying to yourself is worse. I know I’m hard on myself, it’s a flaw on its own, but I’m slowly learning to be gentle and kind but it starts with being truthful to myself and knowing and understanding my imperfections and realizing that, although they exist, they don’t define me. I am not a before picture. I am not an after picture. I am not fat nor am I perfect. I’m flawed. I’m scarred. I’m insecure. But I’m learning and I’m hopeful that one day I’ll fully love me ?

A photo posted by Jess: My Fitness Journal (@plankingforpizza) on Feb 9, 2016 at 7:03am PST

The time between those two starkly different snaps? 30 seconds. Hardly enough time to get ripped.

“On the left my posture is poor, I’m pushing my belly out as far as possible, I adjusted my bottoms to show my gross, unsightly and horrid love handles,” Jess explains in the caption. “On the right I’m standing straight and comfortably. I’m lightly flexing and I’ve adjusted my bottoms to hide my love handles…Not everything we see meets the eye here on social media.”

Jess goes on to make the point that health and fitness are no quick fix. “It’s not a destination. It’s a lifestyle,” she writes.

The lesson to learn? Focus on your own progress; not someone else’s and if you’re not seeing changes as quickly as you’d like, just remember you’re making positive, healthy changes for the long haul, not just until you post your next progress pic.

• body
• exercise
• fitness
• health
• ProgressPic